Studying
by Jump4Life
Summary: Just a short one-shot about an idea that popped into my head. Sam and Jake are in college. Sam is stressed over her homework and Jake helps her calm down. OOC


**Hey guys, this is just a short one shot that popped into my head while reading A Better Normal by Fasnacht (one of the best stories I've ever read, seriously check it out!). It didn't turn out like I had planned, and it was much cuter in my head than what it is on paper, but I hope you like it anyways. I realize that Jake and Sam are really 3 years apart (I think) but I made it a one years difference for this story to help make it flow better. I also haven't read the books in a couple of years, so if I got any of the details wrong, I'm sorry. The story gets a little choppy and jumps around some but I did my best to make it flow smoothly and I know they are OOC. Anyways, here it is, I hope you like it.**

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People always said that your bed was the worst place you could possibly study at, but Sam Forester could not stop thinking about how comfy it would be. Instead, she was sitting on the couch in her boyfriend's apartment trying to work through her pile of homework. As a sophomore in college majoring in Conservative Biology, her homework load was astronomical. Or at least that's how she felt about it. It seemed to be comparably less to the amount that her boyfriend did, who was a junior majoring in criminal justice. Jake shifted beside her as he studied the psychology book with his mustang eyes.

Sam and Jake had started dating shortly after the New Year's Eve bonfire. Not a lot had changed between them after they had redefined the state of their relationship. It was merely adding a physical aspect to their unbreakable friendship. Their relationship had continued to grow throughout the months leading to Jake's departure for college. Promises and commitments were made between the two before he left. However, they didn't lessen the hardship the distance had caused the two. The two years they were separated while Sam was in San Francisco had been hard enough on them as friends, but the year of separation after they had been a couple was the hardest thing that either of them had experienced. Many phone calls and letters had eased the loneliness they felt each day. Jake had spent most of his savings on gas to fuel his numerous trips home to see his brat.

It had been an easy assumption that Sam would attend the same college as Jake did after graduating from high school, and she did. Now she was already in her second year living in an apartment off campus that was in the same complex as Jake's. Sam had 2 roommates, and while she loved them, they made studying in peace hard. Jake had opted to live in an apartment on his own, providing a more relaxing study environment. Therefore, Jake often found his apartment to be Sam's solitude from the craziness of college.

More often than not the couple would find themselves in the same position that they were now. Jake was on one end of the couch with a book balanced on the armrest with a highlighter in his hand. His lap was occupied by Sam's socked feet as she sat with her back against the other armrest, laptop covering her lap and whiteboard sitting on the table beside her. Notes she had taken in class could be found strewn across the floor and table. Music was softly playing from Sam's Pandora station on her computer as background noise. The music was mainly for Sam's benefit, but Jake couldn't deny that it made studying a little more enjoyable as did her constant presence in his apartment.

Sam looked at her Ecology study guide quizzically. It wasn't required, but she knew it was her only hope at getting a decent grade on her test in the morning. One question was giving her more trouble than it was worth.

"Jake, what is the difference in habitat matrix between the different population spatial arrangements?" Sam whined, giving up on finding the answer. His signature tom cat grin spread across his face as he looked over to the woman questioning him.

"Now Brat, why would I know the answer to a question involving a class I have never taken?"

"Because you know everything!" She replied in a mocking tone. Jake just gave her an unbelieving look before continuing with his homework.

"Jake!" Sam whined, looking toward him with big eyes that she knew he couldn't resist.

"Have you even tried looking for the answer in your notes?" He questioned sounding exasperated.

"Only a million times." Same replied in a duh voice.

"Book?" he replied, using as few words as possible.

Sam looked sheepish as she answered his question, "Not exactly. The chapters are humongous and it would take me hours to read them and find the answer. And it's not even guaranteed to be in there."

Jake gave her an incredulous look, "Brat, just give me the book!" As she handed him the book he looked at her again with a questioning look.

"The lecture was supposed to correspond to chapter 12, but I wouldn't hold my breath." She provided as he flipped the book open and turned to the listed chapter. Sam watched as his eyes skimmed across the page, looking for any keywords that would relate to the question she had asked him. He went through a couple of pages before she noticed how his eyes widened just a fraction, alerting her that he had found something that would help her answer the question.

Jake handed the book back to her silently before pointing to a heading that read "Spatial Arrangements". Sam knew that he wouldn't give her the exact answer and would instead make her work for it with a little help. Finding the section the answer would be in was his way of helping. From here on Sam was on her own unless she needed help with phrasing her answer, which she often did.

It annoyed her that he wouldn't just tell her the answer sometimes, particularly when she was extremely stressed or tired as she was now. Overall she knew that it was the right thing for him to do though, otherwise she would never learn the material and would struggle even more than she already did. Leave it to Jake to care enough to be the bad guy in the situation and push her harder.

The couple continued studying in silence with Jake occasionally rubbing Sam's feet as he read. Sam would often start chewing on the mechanical pencil in her hand or a fingernail until Jake would see the movement out of the corner of his eye and turn to look at her with a smirk. He knew she was trying to stop the nervous habit, but could never make it an hour without resorting back to it unconsciously. Sam would realize what she was doing and give a frustrated sigh before moving to sit on her hands and continuing on with her homework.

Jake would often break Sam's concentration to tell her about a theory he was reading about and would ask her opinion. Sam would tell him what she thought about it before going back to her homework until she would find something interesting in her Ecology book to share with him. The couple didn't mind the numerous interruptions to their studying as they were able to enjoy the others excitement in the new piece of information. Jake loved the way that Sam would almost bounce in her seat as she rattled off information that made no sense to him, and Sam just loved listening to Jake talk and ask for her opinion.

After Sam had moved on from Ecology to her Physics homework Jake noticed the change in her demeanor. It was no longer one of excitement at the information she was reading but rather one of frustration. He knew that Sam's hardest class was physics, especially with how much she had always struggled with math. Everybody always said physics was a more intense version of math word problems, but she had once told him she just thought it was the devil. He had laughed at her and claimed it couldn't be that bad. The death glare she had given him in response had ended the conversation.

Now he could always tell when she was working on her physics homework. Not only did she quit talking to him, she started muttering to herself. She would tap away at her calculator, sometimes adding more force than was necessary, before she would mutter something about the answer she had received being too large. She would plug it into her computer none the less as she continued to mutter about it being wrong the whole time. More often than not she would give an exasperated sigh before starting over, but on the rare occasion that the answer was right she would pump her fist in the air and jump up and down. Jake found the display amusing and always fought a smile at her reactions.

Once he had accidently chuckled when she was trying a problem for the third time. The sigh and threats she had made when it had yet again been wrong had just been too comical for him to hold it in any longer. Sam didn't find it funny though and had thrown her calculator at him and started cussing him out. She had been mad about it for a whole week, refusing to see him and saying nothing beyond the words needed to inform him that she was ok and safely in her apartment or in class. He wouldn't have even been given that much attention from her if they had been back at home, but being alas they were in the city.

Here, everyone was a stranger and Jake was constantly worried about someone taking advantage of her or trying to hurt her. After her first few weeks in college and a couple of heated arguments where Sam continuously informed him that she could take care of herself they had finally settled on an agreement. Jake wouldn't bug her about her whereabouts throughout the day as long as she let him know when she was going somewhere beyond campus and send him a text every night to let him know she was safe in her room. It was nice to know that she continued the routine even when she was mad at him. But those few days without seeing her had been enough to keep him from ever laughing at her again.

Jake knew that the chapter of material they were currently going over was causing Sam extra trouble. She had come to him almost in tears after her last class, complaining about how the teacher was going too fast and she didn't understand any of it. He had comforted her best that he could at the time and bought her ice cream. Now as he watched her chew at the dry erase marker in her hand he knew it wasn't getting any easier. He started rubbing her feet again, knowing that she loved it when he did. The gesture didn't provide enough comfort though, and fifteen minutes later Sam started pulling at her hair trying to rip it out.

Not being able to stand her frustration any longer, Jake leaned toward her and gently put his hand over the one that Sam had wrenched into her auburn curls. Using the tips of his fingers, he slowly pried hers loose before pulling her hand towards his face, where he took a moment to kiss the back of it. Sam looked up at him as he did so, curiosity mixing with anger across her face. He dropped her hand and reached for her computer before smiling at her. Taking it out of her lap, he moved the laptop over to the table that was beside the couch.

"What are you doing?!" Sam exclaimed, not in the mood to put up with his nonsense.

"You need to calm down brat. You're not going to get anything done if you keep getting yourself worked up. It's time you take a break and get your mind off of your homework for a few minutes." He reasoned looking into her blue eyes.

She didn't look convinced, but smiled at him anyways. "And how do you suggest I take my mind off of it?"

Jake's lazy tomcat grin spread across his face as he stood from the couch and held his hand out to her. "Dance with me."

Sam couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face at how sweet he was being. She knew he didn't enjoy dancing, but he was asking her anyways because he knew that she loved it. Spinning around the room in his arms was one of her favorite things to do late at night after they were done with homework for the day.

They often fought about which station they should listen to from day to day. Sam preferred to listen to rock or todays country music such as Shinedown, Skillet, Florida Georgia Line, and Keith Urban. Jake, however, preferred listening to the oldies, particularly classic country music. Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, and George Jones always put him at ease. It was music that he had grown up listening to with his mother who, like himself, enjoyed the ballads and found peace within them. Sam's music taste had steamed from her time in San Francisco with her aunt, who enjoyed going to rock concerts and listening to the #1pop hits at the time. Some of the rock bands she had seen in concert had stuck with Sam and she often found that the newer country music coming out had more and more of a pop feel to it.

Jake enjoyed the more popular country music that Sam listened to, but he wasn't the biggest fan of her taste in rock music at first. Over the past two years he had grown to enjoy it though. He found the genre of music to be motivating during his morning runs and started to understand more and more why Sam liked to listen to it when she was frustrated. There was just something about the pounding beat that helped ease all the tension out of your body. Sam always felt a wave of nostalgia listening to the old country music that Jake liked. Memories of her time spent with Maxine would occupy her thoughts and occasionally some songs would bring memories of her mother to the foreground. Today however, the couple had agreed to compromise and Sam's Pandora had been put on shuffle between Today's Country and Classic Country.

Taking his hand as 'Cop Car' by Keith Urban started playing; Sam knew it was one of those moments that she would always remember. The song was a little fast at times to slow dance to, but the couple didn't care. The way Jake held her close to his muscled body sent electric shocks down Sam's spine. His arms were wrapped around her waist and she placed hers on his chest before resting her head between them right under his chin. They stepped from side to side as they turned in circles in the small living room, not a care in the world besides focusing on each other. At that moment, physics homework and school was forgotten completely. Instead, it was just the two of them being content in each others arms as they always would be.

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**So how was it? Liked it, hated it? Either way, review and tell me what you thought. To be honest this has been on my computer for 3 months waiting on me to finish it. No flames please, just constructive criticism. **

**~Jump4Life**


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